The successful creator of Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg

The successful creator of Facebook

Zuckerberg's Background

His mother, Karen, worked as a psychiatrist before the children were born

Edward, his father, ran a dental practice attached to their home

At the age of 12 he created a messaging program which enabled the receptionist of the dental practice to notify his father when a patient arrived using ATARI Basic

Before Facebook:

Attended Phillips Exeter Academy

Learned to read Greek, Latin and Hebrew

Built a program that determines a person's music taste and was offered 1 million by Microsoft, but turned it down

Attended Harvard

Built a site that let Harvard students choose courses together

Mark Zuckerberg is currently 31, he was about 19 when he started Facebook and the social network is now 12 years old.

The Idea for Facebook

During his sophomore year of college, Mark wanted to created a social network for his fellow students.

Mark may have been the company's only CEO, but many others contributed to the creation of Facebook

Peter Thiel

First investor of Facebook

Adam D'Angelo

Facebook's Chief Technology Officer

Dustin Moskovitz

A roomate enlisted for help by Mark

Peter Thiel

First investor of Facebook

Adam D'Angelo

Facebook's Chief Technology Officer

Dustin Moskovitz

A roomate enlisted for help by Mark

The 12 Characteristics of an Entrepreneur: Mark Zuckerberg

Action-Oriented

Mark Zuckerberg founded the Start-up: Education foundation

Donated $100 million to Newark, New Jersey Public Schools, in 2010.

This shows him taking action in a difficult situation

Creative

When Zuckerberg was young he recalls having many artist friends, he says, "They'd come over, draw stuff, and I'd build a game out of it."

Mark had the imagination to fuel the creation of games out of his friends art!

Enthusiastic

Facebook instituted "hackathons" held every six to eight weeks where participants would have one night to conceive of and complete a project

The company provided music, food, and beer at the hackathons, and many Facebook staff members, including Zuckerberg, regularly attended.

"The idea is that you can build something really good in a night", Zuckerberg says, "And that's part of the personality of Facebook now..... It's definitely very core to my personality."

Hosting these events shows Mark's excitement and devotion to encouraging challenging boundaries and creating great things.

Goal-Oriented

At the 2014 Mobile World Congress (MWC), Mark spoke about how Facebook's focus is on mobile technology and claimed that mobile represents the future of the company.

Zuckerberg goes on to speak about the goal that he raised at the TechCrunch conference in September 2013, where he is working towards expanding Internet coverage into developing countries.

This speech shows Mark's goals and his determination to achieve them.

Independent

Mark has turned down many offers by major corporations to buy the company.

He says, "It's not because of the amount of money. For me and my colleagues, the most important thing is that we create an open information flow for people. Having media corporations owned by conglomerates is just not an attractive idea to me."

This shows the independence of Facebook and Mark's strong stance on keeping the company from being influenced by any large companies.

Inquisitive

Mark won prizes in math, astronomy, physics and classical studies during highschool.

By college, Zuckerberg claimed that he could read and write French, Hebrew, Latin, and ancient Greek.

He was captain of the fencing team at his highschool.

His vast expanse of interests explored throughout the years show his major inquisitive qualities, always wanting to learn about a variety of things.

Persistence

In 2009, Mark was falsely portrayed in the book Accidental Millionaires, the story being completely reinvented compared to the true to life events in Mark's life.

Based loosely off the book released in 2009, a movie called the Social Network came out which further butchered Mark's life story and motives.

In spite of all the bad publicity and critism, Mark and Facebook continued to succeed. This shows his "never back down or give up" mentality.

Responsible

Mark was accused of stealing information and ideas from a competing social network, also started by Harvard students

There was a lawsuit in which Facebook had to compensate for any violations

Mark apologized for incriminating messages, and said: "If you're going to go on to build a service that is influential and that a lot of people rely on, then you need to be mature, right?" he said in an interview with The New Yorker. "I think I've grown and learned a lot."

This shows him taking responsibility for his faults and mistakes.

Restless

Mark was an excellent student, he worked extremely hard to achieve outstanding grades all throughout school.

He was accepted into the highest ranked highschool in the US, Phillips Exeter Academy

He went to the #1 Ivy League school in America, Harvard.

This shows no matter what, Mark never stopped working as hard as he possibly could and challenging himself to push all boundaries and be nothing less than his full potential.

Risk-Taking

Mark himself quoted a popular saying among the entrepreneur community: “The biggest risk is not taking any risk.”

Self-Confident

"Rather than continuously striving to tweak and improve, some entrepreneurs grow content with what works now, almost setting it on a pedestal that one fears to fiddle with in any major way. "

"Perhaps no Internet businessman has spit in the face of this attitude more than Mark Zuckerberg. Despite Facebook's status as a social networking giant, Zuckerberg and Co. have never shied away from changing the user interface (sometimes in the face of protests) or shaking things up in the effort to break new ground."

These quotes show Mark's complete and utter confidence in taking risks that are vital to the success of Facebook.

Self-Demanding

Mark dropped out of Harvard in his Sophomore year to devote himself to Facebook fulltime.

This shows his devotion to Facebook and him pushing himself to be the do the best he can.

Where Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook is Today:

According to Forbes, Mark Zuckerberg's Net Worth is $45.2 Billion

More than 1 billion users visit Facebook.com daily

Facebook has given free basic internet to more than a billion people in 19 countries

Mark Zuckerberg and his wife have recently welcomed a daughter, named Maxima.